Remember When Mom Used To Darn Your Darn Socks?

No, really...it must be that the world is getting younger because I'm still my youthful devastatingly handsome self (well, other than the hair loss,wrinkles addition and popping joints).

I was mentioning to one of my younger colleagues (well, ALL my colleagues are younger) that one of the warmest memories is of my mom darning socks while we watched 'Gunsmoke' on the old black-and-white.

Now, other than the fact that this wet-behind-the-ears young 'un had no idea what 'Gunsmoke' was, and was totally befuddled by the term 'the old black-and-white', what really brought a quizzical look to his face was the word 'darning'.

'OK', he said, 'Once again you've lost me. What is darning socks?'

So I had to explain that when we got holes in our socks, mom would darn them.

'Oh', he replied, 'You mean sewing'.

Well, uh....kind of, but not exactly.

I go to my trusty source for information, also known as Wikipedia, to get the proper definition of darning (my superior brain had become a little less superior than it was).

Now of course they get all technical about it, saying the following:

Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting using needle and thread alone. It is often done by hand, but it is also possible to darn with a sewing machine. Hand darning employs the darning stitch, a simplerunning stitch in which the thread is "woven" in rows along the grain of the fabric, with the stitcher reversing direction at the end of each row, and then filling in the framework thus created, as if weaving.

Uh, yeah....that.

Well, all I know is dad was there on the couch (making eyes at Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke), my brother and I were sitting on the linoleum floor by the oil burner, and mom was in the chair watching TV and...

...darning our socks.

This younger gent I was talking to said 'Why didn't you just get some new pairs?'

Well, because these weren't worn out, they just needed a little darning!